"It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents, except at
occasional intervals,
when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets
(for it is in Montréal that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops,
and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against
the darkness."*
Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (1830)
